'Big Shots': Last Call

I don't know if this is actually its finale, but it is the last filmed episode of Big Shots. *Sniff* I think I'm going to miss my Desperate Businessmen...

Spoilers!

Duncan
So, Terrence is officially dead. Which means no more Paul Blackthorne on whatever episodes may appear in the future. Boo. I'm hoping for a secret twin brother - this is a soap opera, after all. Anyway, as Duncan and the guys hash out their various issues at the Country Club, two police detectives appear and ask him to come with them to the station to answer some questions. Detective Winters, the lead on the case, runs through the whole scenario and points out how ridiculous it sounds. Really, he just wants some insight into Zack's motivation for shooting Terrence and where he might be. Duncan says what he knows about Zack, which is virtually nothing as almost everything the kid said was a lie. Winters then shows some surveillance footage of Duncan complaining about the dearly departed and Zack offering to kill him. Duncan asks if the Detective is inferring something, which he says he isn't. He only notes that Zack feels a connection to Duncan and gives him his card in case Zack tries to get in contact. Later, with the rest of the crew in tow, Duncan attends Terrence's funeral. He sees Victoria, Terrence's sister, whom he slept with but ended messily before approaching Lizzie to offer his condolences and apologize, asking if there's anything he can do - she angrily says that the police showed her the surveillance tape and that he's done quite enough.

The next day, Duncan goes to Reveal expecting to meet the new Chairman of the Board and get word on a time-sensitive proposal he'd submitted. To his surprise, Lizzie is the new Chairman as Terrence has left her his entire estate, including his controlling interest of Reveal. She then announced that Duncan's proposal is being put on hold so she can review it. Duncan protests, saying he's been working on this for a year and that it's solid. She assures him that if it is, she'll vote to approve it when she was ready.

After the meeting, Duncan argues with Lizzie and makes the situation about him when she's really just trying to do what she thinks Terrence would want her to do. Victoria walks in at this moment and it gets a little awkward as one of her comments clues Lizzie in on her past with Duncan. They go off to lunch and talk. Victoria is sharing quite a few personal tidbits about Terrence that Lizzie never knew. Victoria offers to bring her and childhood videos or pictures she might find and Lizzie is appreciative.

That night, while drinking with the dudes at the Country Club, the bartender informs Duncan that his corporate card has been canceled and cuts it up in front of him. Originally, Duncan had been saying that being the focus of Lizzie's anger is the least he can do right now, but he can't seem to not make this situation about himself as he picks another fight the next day at Reveal.

When the Board finally makes its decision about the proposal, it's not the news Duncan was expecting. They rejected it but, as he's determined, he goes around Lizzie's back and appeals to them. The proposal gets approved this time and it causes them to get into another fight, an even bigger one in which Duncan questions Lizzie's competence. He immediately apologizes but that's not really something that can be taken back. Before they can truly resolve things, Victoria pops up again only this time she's not being quite as civil as before. Turns out she didn't come to the wedding because she never wanted Lizzie and Terrence to get married in the first place as she believed Lizzie was still in love with Duncan and adds that she's contesting the will.

Lizzie is flabbergasted and, after Victoria leaves, Duncan offers to help and urges her to fight. But she doesn't want his help and is too tired to deal with all this and she goes home. Later, Duncan goes to see Victoria and asks her to back off Lizzie, that she would never have hurt Terrence and that she has the most integrity of anyone he's ever known. Victoria agrees, mainly because Lizzie was there an hour before and signed over all of Terrence's estate, save the shares she came in with.

That night, Lizzie comes over to Duncan's place and pours her heart out. She's devastated that Terrence died before they could really be happy. When he makes a move to console her, she stops him. She needs to know that she can be happy with someone other than him and she starts crying harder. All Duncan can do is just sit next to her.

The next day at work, the Board assembles at Reveal to figure out what's going to happen next but before they can proceed, here comes that pesky Victoria again. Predictably, she's decided to stick around to continue her brother's work and to make Duncan's life a living hell. But at least he gets a special delivery of the news clipping announcing Terrance's death with a message written across it in red ink - "Are you proud of me, Dad? - Zack." I'm sure that brightened up his day. Because that's not creepy at all.

James
Since they've split up, James is finding it difficult to work with Katie because he's still into her and because she smells good ("So today you suddenly smell like sexy cake."). She asks if it's too much - she's trying out a new perfume - and he asks if she's dating someone else. Huh. Interesting leap. Clearly James isn't dealing with this whole "back to being friends" thing very well so he decides to divide the workload to lessen the amount of time they spend together in close quarters. He tells her to put a team together to work on the quarterly reports and he'll get a team together for the other project. When Katie meets with her team members, she lets them know that James won't be working with them this time and that she'll fill him in their progress as they go. That's when Natalie the Hateful Office Wench makes a "you work close together" remark, much like she did last week. Katie raises and eyebrow at it, but doesn't really react to it.

The next night, James goes to a restaurant to pick up dinner for himself to-go and he sees Katie there with Ted McMannis, CEO of a rival company. Reacting as most would if the person they were still in love with was laughing at dinner with someone else, James confronts her about it the next day but quickly apologizes as it's none of his business. While true, Katie offers an explanation anyway and reveals that it wasn't a date, it was a job interview. James is not happy about this. I'd even say he was angry, especially because she didn't discuss the situation before going out on an interview. Katie admits she doesn't want to leave but she doesn't like the idea of people thinking she got her position because she'd slept her way through the ranks, thus invalidating years of hard work. James attempts to convince her to stay, saying that it's rough for the moment but they'll get over it.

Before they can get into it further, Natalie the Hateful Office Wench pops in. James leaves and the Hateful Wench hands Katie her portion of the quarterly report. Except she didn't make a change that Katie told her to make. When Natalie asks if Katie had run the changes by James and makes another "working close" remark, Katie gives her a well-deserved verbal smackdown telling her that maybe if she works hard enough then maybe she'll actually get a promotion and be in a position where other people can question whether she got her job based on merit or because she was banging the boss. The Hateful Wench totally got served so she apologized and scampers away to make the corrections. Katie then marches into James' office and lays a big smooch on him. They're back on and Katie isn't going anywhere so they celebrate by doing things that are inappropriate in the workplace.

The next day, James tells Ed, head of the Board, that he and Katie are dating and that they will go to HR and fill out the paperwork and such. Ed says if it were any other CEO they'd be having a very different conversation. Before leaving he mentions that his wife always thought James and Katie would make a great couple and asks if they'd like to have dinner that night. The answer ends up being yes and when they go out, Ed's wife is being very chatty with Katie saying that she never liked James' ex, etcetera, etcetera. Katie tries to excuse herself to the bathroom but the wife comes with her leaving James and Ed to wait in the bar for their table. Ted McMannis shows up and joins the guys for a drink, which Ed goes to buy. While he's gone, Ted starts making inappropriate comments about not getting to hire Katie out from under James, both literally and figuratively. And James doesn't appreciate it...so much so that he pushes Ted face down onto the bar table and holds him down by the neck. Ooo...how Alias of him. Well, not entirely. If he was really channeling Vaughn he would've punched him in the kidney, broken his nose, and possible crushed his throat. Good times. At any rate, Ed, Ed's wife and Katie all show up and are shocked by what they see.

At the office the next morning, James is waiting to hear from Ed and the Board to see if he's fired or not - which he's thinking he's not but there's sure to be repercussions. Katie asks what Ted said to piss him off so much, he lies and says he made a comment about Stacy sleeping with his dead boss.

Brody
Brody rented a secret, separate apartment for all his stuff. It's a "guy's pad" full of video games, big screen TVs, parlor games and assorted other things he can't have at the house. He comes in one day and finds Jenelle there. He freaks out a bit expecting her to put a kibosh on the whole thing but when she says she understands, he's a bit dumbstruck. when she wants to do "Brody Stuff" with him, he's super-dumbstruck. They start out sort of okay but as soon as Jenelle isn't good at something she wants to move on. Then, all of sudden, she starts getting better than Brody at a lot of the stuff and that just sucks all the fun out of it. He decides to pack everything up and get rid of the apartment, telling her that he just wants to go back to how they were before. Jenelle gives one of the moving guys some extra cash to lose a few boxes and maybe take the foosball table home to his kids. The next morning, that same moving guy shows up at the Country Club where Brody's having breakfast. Brody hands him an envelope full of cash and the moving guy verifies that everything is back in the apartment just like it was. Brody knew what Jenelle was up to and planned accordingly.

Karl
So...Karl and Marla finally tell Wendy about their affair and that Marla's baby is Karl's. They get kicked out of the house, predictably. Karl tries to by her something shiny to get back in her favor but that doesn't work. Marla then goes and apologizes, telling Wendy how awesome she is and that she wants them to raise her baby. That touches Wendy and Marla gets back into the house. Later, Marla and Wendy come back from dinner or something and Karl is there waiting for them. He reads Wendy the wedding vows he wrote when they got married and says he still loves her and blah blah blah. Wendy is touched but before she can vocalize that she forgives him, she runs to the bathroom and makes nice with the porcelain god. She comes out and hugs Karl and explains she's been feeling nauseous for the last few days. That's right. She'd pregnant too. Yawn. At least we won't have to deal with that whole "secret affair" aspect of the storyline anymore.

Other Assorted Tidbits:

• Where the hell is Cam during all this? Sure, Crazy Zack is on the loose but you'd think that attending her mother's new husband's funeral would be worth some face time.
• Speaking of Crazy Zack, I'm not a big fan of that particular turn in storyline. Sure, every soap needs a lunatic but I think the progression to psychotic killer was a little quick. And I'm hoping he hasn't gotten his mitts on Cam because the whole hostage thing is so expected.
• Again I say boo on no more Paul Blackthorne. Maybe Terrence can show up in a dream sequence. Or Lizzie will wake up one day and find him in the shower, thus erasing the events of the last 3 episodes.
• I can't say enough about Nia Long and Michael Vartan. They both make such brilliant choices in their seasons - the facial expressions, the pauses, the little looks. I think they have better chemistry than he did with Jennifer Garner.
• I'm finding all this stuff with Duncan to be entirely too much. If and when the show comes back on the air, they should give his storyline a brief break, let Duncan breathe. Not that I don't love Dylan McDermott. I do. I just think the complications of his storyline can be...exhausting. I mean, how much stuff can go wrong all at once? Granted, considering his past this is just one giant karmic backslap but still, as a viewer I just need some fresh air.

Quote of the Night:
"I think that I saw that once on an episode of Falcon Crest." - Detective Winters to Duncan regarding the circumstances surrounding Terrence's death

So this is it (at least for now). What do you think of the show? Do you want it to return? Will Crazy Zack start boiling bunnies in Duncan's apartment? Will Brody ever have a more significant plot line? Share and discuss!

E-mail

• Digg
• Facebook
• Fark
• Yahoo Buzz
• Stumbleupon